CHRIST CHURCH CHALLENGE March 2007 2 Christ Church Challenge CHRIST CHURCH, JULIAN ROAD DIOCESE OF BATH AND WELLS IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND SUNDAY SERVICES 8.00am Holy Communion 10.00am Family Communion, Junior Church & Crêche First Sundays & Festivals Choral Evensong and Sermon at 6.30pm Other Sundays Said Evening Prayer at 5.30pm (see page 5) There is amplification to assist the hard of hearing CHOIR Junior Choir Practice Friday 6.30pm - 8.00pm Adult Practice Friday 7.30pm - 9.00pm New singers always welcome - please contact Director of Music 01225 445360 BAPTISMS, MARRIAGES, FUNERALS By arrangement. Please ‘phone the Vestry 338869 / Officiating Minister 427462 Angela and John, the churchwardens, would like to know about people who are ill, or of any circumstances in which the ministry of the Church would be welcome. March 2007 www.christchurchbath.org Christ Church Challenge 3 Forum… UK IS ACCUSED OF FAILING CHILDREN The UK has been accused of failing its children, as it comes bottom of a league table for child well being across 21 industrialised countries. UK Report Findings UK child poverty has doubled since 1979 Children living in homes earning less than half of the national average wage - 16% Children rating their peers as "kind and helpful" - 43% Families eating a meal together "several times" a week - 66% Children who admit being drunk on two or more occasions - 31% A Unicef report published on 13 February looked at 40 indicators including poverty, peer and family relationships, and health. One of the report's authors said that under-investment and a "dog eat dog" attitude in society were to blame for Britain's poor performance. The government, on the other hand, insists that its policies have helped to improve child welfare. 'Dog eat dog society' The report revealed that all countries have some weaknesses but. Professor Jonathan Bradshaw from York University, one of the report's authors, put the UK's poor ratings down to long term underinvestment. "It's very difficult to answer the why question. But if you're asking what is the main driver of these results, it's the fact that for a long time children in Britain have been under-invested in; not enough has been spent on them." The Unicef study found Britain had the lowest proportion of children who found their friends kind and helpful - 40%, compared to 80% in Switzerland, he went on. Professor Bradshaw said that this was an indication of a "dog eat dog society". He added: "In a society which is very unequal, with high levels of poverty, it leads on to what children think about themselves and their lives. That's really what's at the heart of this." www.christchurchbath.org March 2007 4 Christ Church Challenge An unhappy and unhealthy generation The Children's Commissioner for England, Professor Sir Alan Aynsley- Green, said the report's findings should be a wake-up call to politicians and society as a whole. "We are turning out a generation of young people who are unhappy, unhealthy, engaging in risky behaviour, who have poor relationships with their family and their peers, who have low expectations and don't feel safe." He said parents, teachers, politicians and society as a whole all had a role to play in nurturing children and helping them to develop into successful adults. Church of England response The Children's Society has launched a website to coincide with the report, www.mylife.uk.com, which allows children to answer a series of surveys about their lives. The society's chief executive Bob Reitemeier said: "We simply cannot ignore these shocking findings. "Unicef's report is a wake-up call to the fact that, despite being a rich country, the UK is failing children and young people in a number of crucial ways." Leave it to the politicians? The government claims that it has given children proper policy priority and that more up-to-date data would show progress on issues like, pregnancy rates, teenage smoking, drinking and risky sexual behaviour had helped improve children's welfare. An opposition spokesman, on the other hand, accused the government of having “failed this generation of children”. This devastating report demands something more than the usual yah- boo exchanges between political parties. We all have to become involved. Most of us know, by observation and experience that tax laws, benefit policies and the excessive demands of employers militate against family life. It is often impossible for many families to devote their time to their children. We all have a duty now to pressurise the policy makers into legislating for families and placing value on the work of parents. The Mothers’ Union and the Children’s Society represent a direct line of action for our church. This Unicef report must be seen by all of us as call to prayer and action in a precious task we share with the whole of society; the care and nurture of our children. Jesus said: “Let the children come to me”. Can we, his church, say less? Antony March 2007 www.christchurchbath.org Christ Church Challenge 5 Church Calendar for March Mar 4 Sun THE SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT 6.30pm Choral Evensong 5 Mon 8.00pm “Meet Up Monday” at the Hare and Hounds 7 Wed 11.00am Holy Communion and Lunch 8 Thu GEOFFREY KENNEDY, Priest and Poet - 1929 9 Fri 11.00am The Cedar Tree Community Café 11 Sun THE THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT 5.00pm Said Evening Prayer 14 Wed 11.00am Holy Communion and Lunch 16 Fri 11.00am The Cedar Tree Community Café 17 Sat PATRICK, Bishop, Missionary & Patron of Ireland - 460 18 Sun THE FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT MOTHERING SUNDAY 5.00pm Tea and Taizé 19 Mon JOSEPH OF NAZARETH 20 Tue CUTHBERT, Bishop and Missionary - 687 21 Wed 11.00am Holy Communion and Lunch 23 Fri 11.00am The Cedar Tree Community Café 25 Sun THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT NB: Bath Half Marathon (10.30—2.30) 5.00pm Said Evening Prayer 26 Mon ANNUNCIATION OF OUR LORD to the BVM 28 Wed 11.00am Holy Communion & Lunch 30 Fri 11.00am The Cedar Tree Community Café Apr 1 Sun PALM SUNDAY 6.30pm Choral Evensong www.christchurchbath.org March 2007 6 Christ Church Challenge Laity Rota for March OT Readers NT Readers Gospel March 4 Georgina Bowman Mark Elliott Chris Graham 11 Sarah Hiscock Jane Fletcher Margaret Heath 18 Junior Church 25 Judith Bishop Sylvia Ayers Ann Kemp April 1 Margaret Burrows Judith Anderson Richard Gabe 8 Emma Elliott Bev Pont David Marles Chalice Assistants March 4 Chris Graham Janet Mahto 11 Jane Fletcher Ann Kemp 18 Bob Siderfin Penny Edwards 25 Margaret Burrows Tessa Claridge April 1 Chris Graham Janet Mahto 8 Jane Fletcher Ann Kemp Intercessors March 4 David Marles 11 Rev Cliff Burrows 18 Junior Church 25 Chris Graham April 1 Georgina Bowman 8 Rev Antony Claridge Sidespeople 8am 10am March 4 Arthur Jones David Marles Joan Bunkin 11 Clive Tilling June Metcalfe Chris Gladstone 18 Arthur Jones Tessa Claridge Jean Ferguson 25 Clive Tilling Chris and Eliza Gladstone April 1 Arthur Jones Margaret Silver Frank Twissell 8 Clive Tilling Ken and Sylvia Ayers March 2007 www.christchurchbath.org Christ Church Challenge 7 Lectionary for March Old Testament New Testament Gospel Mar 4 2nd Sunday of Lent No reading Philippians 3.17-4.1 Luke 13.31-35 11 3rd Sunday of Lent Isaiah 55.1-9 1 Cor 10.1-13 Luke 13.1-9 18 4th Sunday of Lent—Mothering Sunday No reading Colossians 3.12-17 John 25b-27 25 5th Sunday of Lent Isaiah 43.16-21 No reading John 12.1-8 April 1 Palm Sunday Isaiah 50.4-9a No reading Luke 19.28-40 Our Calendar Correspondent Explains… “GEOFFREY KENNEDY” (8th March) Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, MC (June 27, 1883 - March 8, 1929), was an Anglican priest and poet. He was nicknamed 'Woodbine Willy' during World War I for giving Woodbine cigarettes along with spiritual aid to injured and dying soldiers. Born in Leeds in 1883, Kennedy was the seventh of nine children born to Jeanette Anketell and William Studdert Kennedy, a vicar in Leeds. He was educated at Leeds Grammar School and Trinity College, Dublin, where he gained a degree in classics and divinity in 1904. After a year's training, he became a curate in Rugby and then, in 1914, the vicar of St. Pauls, Worcester. On the outbreak of war, Kennedy volunteered as a chaplain to the armed forces on the Western Front, where he gained the nickname 'Woodbine Willy'. In 1917, he won the Military Cross at Messines Ridge after running into no man's land to help the wounded during an attack on the German frontline. He wrote a number of poems about his experiences, and these appeared in the books Rough Rhymes of a Padre (1918), and More Rough Rhymes (1919). After the war, Kennedy was appointed to run St. Edmund King and Martyr in Lombard Street, London. Having been converted to Christian socialism and pacifism during the war, he wrote Lies (1919), Democracy and the Dog-Collar (1921), Food for the Fed Up (1921), The Wicket Gate (1923), and The Word and the Work (1925). He went on to work for the Industrial Christian Fellowship, for whom he went on speaking tours of Britain. It was on one of these tours that he was taken ill and died, in Liverpool. www.christchurchbath.org March 2007 8 Christ Church Challenge Preparing for Easter In this year’s lead up to Easter Christ Church will be joining with neighbouring churches and churches across the city of Bath.